


The Hulk Probably Gives Terrible Manicures

by zarabithia



Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Curtain Fic, Domesticity, Multi, Nail Polish
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-11
Updated: 2014-07-11
Packaged: 2018-02-08 10:15:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,884
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1937028
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/zarabithia/pseuds/zarabithia
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sam takes Bucky and Steve to meet his family.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Hulk Probably Gives Terrible Manicures

"You can hardly blame us for not trusting you," is the first thing that Gideon Wilson says to Steve and although Bucky is there for the event, Bucky is a secondary concern to Captain America and Sam Wilson.

That’s fine, because Sarah Casper has an amazing couch and Bucky is more than happy to just sit there and enjoy how soft it is. It’s one of those weird 21st century couches that wrap around the entire room and Bucky thinks that he could have had some amazing sleepovers and forts with Steve if they’d had these kind of couches back then. Hell, if they’d had these kind of couches back then, each of his sisters could have had their own fort, and Rebecca, Ally, and Rosie wouldn't have had to invade the boys’ forts.

He’d minded that so much back then - Steve never did, of course - and he wonders how many times they thought about him being cranky over the forts after he died. Someday, maybe, when he is able to actually go face Rebecca - the only one of his sisters still alive - he might ask her. He might apologize for being a shitty big brother, but then again, it’s many of a long list of sins.

But Bucky doesn't want to think about that right now. He’s been trying to keep those kind of thoughts for late at night after Steve and Sam are asleep, or when he’s in the shower. Maybe it’s part of the “recovery” that Steve and Sam keep talking about, but Bucky likes to think it’s just him not allowing his shitty past to take precedence over his future.

But the conversation between Steve, Sam, and Sam’s relatives is awfully boring, so Bucky momentarily checks out long enough to eavesdrop on the conversation happening between Sam’s other relatives, who don’t know that Bucky is listening. The hearing that his first time as prisoner blessed Bucky with enables him to hear the commentary at the top of the stairs though, and it’s far more interesting.

_"Why doesn't your dad trust Captain America, Jimmy? What kind of weirdo doesn't trust Captain America?" the younger of Sam’s two nephews asks._

_"The kind that knows the story about the real Captain America, maybe," the older one says._

_"Maybe your dad’s just stupid."_

_"Maybe Uncle Sam should be dating the Hulk instead. He’s way cooler."_

Bucky wants to be offended by this, but Sam’s nephews are five and seven, so understandably, “Hulk Smash” is up their alley. “Hulk Smash” would have been up Bucky’s alley, too, at that age.

Steve would have preferred Thor - noble, lovable Thor whose tenderness of heart is surpassed only by Steve Rogers himself.

Rebecca would have -

Bucky forces himself to stop short at that thought, and forces himself to go back to paying attention to the current familial circus in front of him, instead of the ones that had taken place 70 years ago.

To his right, Steve looks for all the world like the skinny little flushed kid who couldn't breathe from 70 years ago. Poor Steve. He’d wanted to make such a good impression on Sam’s family.

Poor Steve - despite being the only brother Bucky’d ever had - is an only child and doesn't seem to get that the _baby_ doesn't ever bring home people who meet approval. The Winter Soldier had already preformed his first kill by the time that baby Ally met her husband, but Bucky hopes the other two sisters gave that man hell. He deserved it, after all, for marrying the baby - even if she’d been 23 at the time.

Sam gets it, though, and that’s why he is alternating between greatly annoyed and resigned over on Steve’s right side.

"What Gideon is trying to say," Sarah interrupts. "Is that … well, on his own, it’s unlikely that Sam would have committed treason."

"Or quit his job to run off on a world wide goose chase?" Bucky asks, because hey, he understands Gideon and Sarah’s mistrust on the sibling level.

"You aren’t helping, Barnes," Sam says, and it’s resigned, too.

Ah, that’s true love, though, Bucky thinks. Knowing that one of your boyfriends is a little shit and still accepting him - though, of course, right now in front of Sam’s brother and sister is not the time to focus too much on the acceptance and wanting that he gets from both of his boyfriends.

Being … grateful instead of anxious requires more of Bucky’s skills than he is capable of sparing when he is supposed to be having a conversation.

"I’m not sure it counts as treason," Steve says, and Bucky’s not sure if its his enhanced senses that allow him to know that Sam is reaching for Steve’s hand and shaking his head without even looking at Sam.

Because Bucky can’t look at Sam right now. If Bucky looks at either Sam or Steve, he is pretty sure that he is going to laugh so hard that he is going to get thrown out of the house and off of this very comfortable couch.

"Oh, you aren’t sure?" Gideon says, disbelief obvious in his voice. "Captain America isn't sure that getting my baby brother involved in overthrowing an important branch of our nation’s security counts as treason?”

"Technically, it was an international organization," Sam points out. "And since when are you in love with the government? You and Sarah have both gone to the same Patriot Act protests."

Gideon gives Sam a perfected older brother look so well done that Bucky is envious.

"Technically, Sammy, that doesn't make it _not_ treason,” Gideon says. He ignores Sam’s second point, which is the kind of thing that big brothers have to do when the little ones make valid points. Deny and ignore.

"No, but the fact that they were infiltrated by Nazis probably lessens that treasonous aspect,” Steve argues, and the very tone makes Bucky want to laugh. He bites down hard on the inside of his cheek and uses every ounce soldier training he has in order to keep from laughing at the indignation in Steve’s tone.

"Well. At least you aren't claiming a difference between Hydra and the Nazis," Gideon says.

"Why would I?" Steve asks, and he sounds completely bewildered.

Steve is, bless him, not quite aware of the amount of people who have tried to defend Hydra and its agents. Bucky is aware of them, and Sam is aware of them, and it’s a safe bet that Natasha is aware of them. Steve is not because few people are foolish enough to try to argue the “Not all Hydra are Nazis!” cause to Steve Rogers.

"Some people don’t," Sarah says.

"Some people are assholes," Bucky offers, and the choked laugh from Steve’s right is proof enough that Sam doesn’t mind Bucky’s choice of language in front of his big brother and big sister.

"I think dinner’s ready. Let me go call Jimmy and Jody down from the top of the stairs and we can eat," Sarah says, so apparently she doesn't mind either.

Dinner goes well enough, because apparently, agreeing that Hydra is synonymous with Nazis is enough to get you into the Wilson family’s good graces. Bucky thinks that’s fair enough; that should be a test for everyone. People who pass can be in Bucky’s good graces, too. People who don’t pass can get a nice one way ticket to the moon, courtesy of Thor’s hammer.

But it’s after dinner that they really pass the test. It’s after dinner that they settle on that ridiculous couch again. Bucky is happy to plop himself down between Sarah and Gideon, and to spend time looking over baby pictures. There’s a lot of pictures of Sam with birds - something Bucky will tease him about later - and lots of pictures of Sam helping out at his father’s church.

Sam sits beside them, reaching over Bucky to occasionally snatch a picture out of Gideon’s hand to tell the story behind the photo “correctly,” in the special kind of obnoxious way that youngest children do. It makes Bucky terribly nostalgic, and it would hurt, except there’s another layer over it all that makes Bucky not want to move from his spot at all. Sam, who is always so patient and warm with them, is a little bit more biting and a little bit more exasperated among his siblings.

Steve should, by all rights, be sitting with them and enjoying the show. But he’s on the other end of the couch, with a nephew on his lap and a nephew sitting at his feet. Jody is holding perfectly still while Steve paints his nails a shade of green that doesn't look good on anyone but the Hulk, but has apparently been borrowed from Sarah’s collection. Steve is being patient and slow and listening careful to all of Jimmy’s directions.

"You don’t want to go too fast," Jimmy instructs Steve. "You’ll get it all over his fingers."

"Captain America can do a better job than you, Jimmy," Jody informs his cousin.

"Like Captain America’s ever painted finger nails before," Jimmy scoffs.

"Actually, I have," Steve corrects gently. "I could have used your help the first couple of times, Jimmy. I messed those poor nails up pretty badly."

"It’s good to have practice," Jody says, and he peers down at his nails to inspect them. "It makes things better. Uncle Sam says so."

Bucky takes his eyes off of the three of them long enough to smirk about Captain America dating Uncle Sam, because it’s the type of joke that cannot be left unsaid. Except that it apparently absolutely can, because Bucky gets distracted by the fact that Sarah and Gideon have abandoned their desire to provide sibling-appropriate humiliation of their little brother in favor of watching Steve paint Jody’s fingernails.

Bucky gets distracted because Sarah and Gideon haven’t given a damn about all of Captain America’s achievements or his medals or his (rather impressive, even Bucky has to admit) muscles. All the reasons that have earned Steve his own section at one of the Smithsonian museums have taken a backseat to their concern over their little brother.

But Bucky’s job has always involved people watching and as he watches Sarah and Gideon observe Steve’s interactions with Sam’s nephews, he can see their disapproval start to crumble.

Bucky mentions this later, to Sam. They are sleeping in their own bed, after only a brief detour to eliminate some Hydra scumbags on their way back to the apartment. Steve is curled on his side, sleeping peacefully between them, both sets of messily painted fingernails splashed against Sam’s chest while a stray leg pulls Bucky close. It’s a nice position to sleep it; it gives Bucky the reassurance he needs when the nightmares come, but it doesn't suffocate him.

"It only makes sense," Sam murmurs through a yawn. His fingers brush over the red, white, and blue nails done alternately by Jody and Jimmy, and he gives a sleepy smile. "The art dork part’s what makes everyone fall in love with him, isn’t it?"

The answer is so obvious it doesn't need a reply, so Bucky just allows himself to lie there contentedly, listening for a long while after Sam’s breathing slows to match the same steady rate of the man between them.


End file.
